Let me tell you about a close companion here at “Joni and Friends.”
Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada and this is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month… and seeing my chemotherapy ended a year ago October, I’m celebrating with you all the insights and encouragements I’ve gleaned since last year. What got me through? Well, my family and friends were a huge help – my sisters flew out from back east and several girlfriends went the extra mile. But there was one friend in particular who played a special role – I never saw her during my entire chemotherapy, but her presence was so near and real. Sandy Setliff has worked with Joni and Friends for many years and back in early 2010, bless her heart, she had to step down from her role in our ministry to move back to Texas to help her 90-year-old father. It was not an easy decision, for Sandy loved her work here at the International Disability Center and she had close friends here… I was grateful to be numbered among them.
Sandy was living back in Texas when she learned about my breast cancer. And it didn’t surprise me when, a day or two later, I received a get-well card from her – in it she wrote the words to one of my favorite hymns. I hung the card on our kitchen shutter doors with several other get well cards that had arrived. Well, the next day, lo and behold, I get another card from Sandy Setliff. The next day, another one! And what do you know, in each one she either wrote several Bible verses or several lines from a different hymn. Soon, her cards began to mount up.
But there was one in particular that made it to my bathroom mirror. It was the one in which Sandy wrote three stanzas from the hymn, “All the Way My Savior Leads Me.” And I have to share them with you now. It goes like this: “All the way my Savior leads me, what have I to ask beside? Who can doubt His tender mercy, who through life has been my guide. Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, hereby faith in Him to dwell, for I know what ‘er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. All the way my Savior leads me, cheers each winding path I tread. Gives me grace for every trial, feeds me on the Living Bread. When my weary steps may falter and my soul a-thirst may be, gushing from the Rock before me, lo a spring of joy I see.” At the bottom of this handwritten note, Sandy wrote, “Joni, I bet you never thought this was the way God would lead you, but remember “Jesus doeth all things well.”"
That battle with cancer is behind me, but these cards these cards Sandy sent are a treasure – they are, in fact, a journal of some of the best hymns and Scriptures that saw me through. And, hey, may I encourage you to be a Sandy Setliff in the life of someone you know today who is recovering from cancer or some other illness? The constant flow of daily encouragement from a friend far away means more than you realize. And don’t forget to drop by my radio page at joniandfriends.org and ask for your copy of the booklet, “Don’t Waste Your Cancer” by Dr. John Piper. The insights Dr. Piper shares in this booklet are so powerful; I kept it by my bedside all last year, and Ken and I often flipped through it for comfort and encouragement. Again, it’s called “Don’t Waste Your Cancer” and you can get your copy at joniandfriends.org. Finally, friend, whatever struggles you may face today, I just know there’s a hymn that matches your need. It could very well be All the Way My Savior Leads Me – and for all those challenges you’re facing, don’t forget: Jesus doeth all things well.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
© Joni and Friends